Infernals

Humanoid Higher Beings with horns and colorful skin.

Appearance

Other than some Corpsevines, Infernals are generally the tallest higher beings, typically growing to 2-2.5m tall. They have a large variety of skin colors, mostly shades or red, purple or yellow and large horns attached to their foreheads. Each individual's horns are unique to them in their exact size shape and texture, but there are some general categories of similar looking ones.

Infernals' skins are rough and slightly scaly and can withstand high temperatures. On the other hand, this also makes them very sensitive to cold and so there are only few places they can survive for long periods.

Many infernals also have piercings and tattoos, similar to those of Fleshcarved and often use them in similar ways.

Ryxos' Curse

Due to the way most Infernals use magic, they are often heavily injured when casting spells. This already makes using magic extremely dangerous, as it is very easy to use too much blood and bleed out as a result. However, due to Ryxos' influence, Infernals are particularly vulnerable to this. Their bodies are extemely sensitive to both magic and pain, leading to them reaching a strong extatic state whenever they can feel the energy flow through them. This is so strong that often other strong sensations lead to a similar state, in particular very painful ones.

As such, Infernals are known to be very masochistic, always searching for new sensual experiences and often hurting themselves in the process.

Cultures

Due to their high heat resistance and low cold tolerance, most Infernals prefer places that stay warm at all times, mostly the Infernal Crown, where underground caves with magma pools and surface volcanoes provide enough heat to keep them comfortable.

The largest of Infernal settlements are found within the volcano Molgard, the largest volcano in the Infernal crown. Deep within the crater, around and under the large lava pool inside its crater, there are many caves with high temperatures with lots of different infernal communities.

In case they ever take longer trips into colder climates in the north, they have to take some measures to not freeze to death. This often includes setting up camps somewhere, where one can safely start a large fire, where thet then stand in the flames or even sleep within them. In some larger cities such as Aethera, some inns also have special rooms designed for them to stay in. These are heavily insulated rooms with extremely strong heating with more luxurious ones even providing small lava baths for them. These are however very rare, as most places don't expected them to show up very often.

One example where many such places can be found is near the Moon Gate, where during the blue moon (see [the Moon](../gods/lunara.md#The Moon)) a large group travel to the temple in order to honor Lunara and Kalia.

Since Runebearers are also often found in the Infernal Crown, the two races generally have good relations, although they tend to keep to themselves most of the time.

Religions

The god most commonly worshipped by Infernals is Volkaa, who came to Mogard after the tragedy of Grundarimm, who soon became their most trusted god.

Crescentborn

As a result of their curse, a community of Infernals decided the dangers of using magic and even strong sensations are too strong and started isolating themselves in The Pale Crescent.

Since the Pale Crescent is deep in the Scorched Plains, it is uniquely suited to harboring this community. There are few other people that can even reach them there, nor are there many things that could be dangerous to them.

For food, there are farms of various algae and a particularly rare and delicious fruit, the Tidepearls, that are small and grape-like, growing on coral-like plants. Once they have ripened into a shining silver color, the berries are released from the stalks and float to the surface where they can be collected easily. During full moons, these give off a light glow in the moonlight.

They also grow plants on land, one particular example being the Moonfruits. These are long banana-shaped fruit growing on palms in the oasis. As they ripen they turn into the characteristic silver hue of the moon, reflecting the moon light as most things in the crescent. They are very sensitive to harvesting conditions, however, only being ripe in a short period during the full moon. Before they ripened they are extremely poisonous, and are sometimes even used for potent poisons, and if they are left until after the full moon, they fall of the trees and start rotting extremely fast.

In order to harvest them, the Crescentborn have their own harvesting rituals during a full moon. Whenever the full moon approaches, they have a night-long celebration, praying to Lunara and Kalia.

During this festival, the Crescentborn also have the only opportunity (outside of some emergencies) to remove magical energy from their bodies, stopping them from overflowing and dying. Because this process involves drawing blood, it is highly controlled and only one person has it done at a time, with at least three more watching them, making sure they don't lose themselves in the unknown sensations and force themselves to bleed out.